Wild Animals #2: Detecting 101

Brisson moves the series more into crime story territory with Wild Animals #2. Whereas Wild Animals #1 was largely driven by building Neil up as a character rather than focusing heavily on the crime story elements, Wild Animals #2 is more plot oriented. But it never turns into a procedural. Neil does not suddenly become a crack detective, capable of moving from A to B to C in a thorough and logical manner.

Focusing more on plot doesn’t mean abandoning Neil’s complicated qualities, though. He remains an unconventional protagonist. It is easier to root for Neil in Wild Animals #2 than it was in Wild Animals #1’s final pages where Brisson ran the risk of making him too unsympathetic for readers to care about. It’s almost a reward for readers who stuck with the series past the first issue: “Thanks for sticking with Neil. You’re going to get a good story out of it.”

Neil actually comes across as a little desperate in Wild Animals #2. Brisson captures the character’s complete ignorance of how to go about tracking down the three cops he’s searching for and successfully marries it with assorted difficulties connected to his youth. When searching the library for old newspapers, he’s direct to the microfiche. Neil, of course, has no idea what that is at first. Brisson writes a very compelling and complicated inner monologue for the character, and it’s that more than anything that keeps the story interesting until late page developments.

Wild Animals #2 also puts Neil in a more detailed world. There were several points in Wild Animals #1 where Kuhn minimized or even eliminated background details. In fairness, Kuhn’s choices of when and how to do it usually worked to emphasize what was in frame (though at least one of these instances was probably specified in Brisson’s script). But the world of Albion Flats feels bigger and more alive thanks to these extra details. Even the fight sequence late in the issue includes extra background details. Contrast this with the fight between Neil and the customer in Wild Animals #1 where the only details in frame were objects that were important to the fight. Neil exists in a variety of specific places whereas in the previous issues he seemed to merely exist.

Neil himself, and most other characters, are themselves fairly detailed thanks to thick, short lines that help define facial structure and expressions. These are more liberal on older characters in a general sense, helping to communicate age. On Neil, the well defined cheekbones and lines under his eyes tell of a constant weariness and overall off-putting state.

Cunniffe uses a richer hued color palette overall which has the effect of creating brighter, warmer interiors, gentle days, and darker nights. This once again contrasts with the faded yellow that pervades the colors used in Neil’s flashbacks. The rich colors contribute to how visually engaging this fairly slow burn crime story is.

The font used for Neil’s internal monologue has a handwritten scrawl quality to it. It works even better here than in the first issue because it feels organically connected to his amateur investigation. In a way, it’s like a journal entry.